Spanish airports saw a large rise in passenger numbers in the European Union in 2016, according to data published by Eurostat and published in the online newspaper "The Local Spain" on Wednesday.

Spain saw a record 75.3 million tourists visit the country in 2016 and that was reflected by figures that show that Malaga, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca airports, all of which are in or close to major holiday destinations, saw rises of over 10 percent in the number of passengers using them.

Situated on the Costa del Sol in the south of Spain, Malaga welcomed 16.6 million passengers, 15.7 percent higher than in 2015, with only Luton airport to the north of London, experiencing higher growth among the top 30 airports in the European Union.

Barcelona's continued popularity as a tourist destination for both longer holidays and long weekends, was reflected by the 43.7 million travelers, who used the city's El Prat airport, 11 percent higher than on the previous year.

El Prat is now the sixth busiest airport in the EU, although it is still behind Madrid's Adolfo Suarez-Barajas airport, which enjoyed a 6.9 percent increase for a total of 49.1 million travelers.

Finally 26.2 million passengers used Palma de Mallorca airport after a 10.6 increase over 2016 to help make Spain the EU country with the third highest number of air travelers (194 million), beaten only by Germany with 201 million and the United Kingdom (249 million).